Combined Raw Materials Board

The Combined Raw Materials Board (CRMB) was a wartime allocation agency established in 1942 by the United States and the United Kingdom to coordinate the procurement, distribution, and stockpiling of strategic raw materials, including asbestos, during World War II. It directed where asbestos shipments went, which industries received priority, and how supplies from Canada, South Africa, and Southern Rhodesia were rationed among Allied war production.

Origin

Created by a joint U.S.-U.K. declaration on January 26, 1942, shortly after the United States entered the war, the CRMB was one of several combined boards established to pool Allied resources. It worked alongside the Combined Production and Resources Board and operated until its dissolution at the end of 1945.

Significance in Asbestos Context

The CRMB classified asbestos as a critical war material, which dramatically increased demand and production across Allied nations and pushed asbestos into virtually every shipyard, munitions plant, refinery, and military vessel of the era. For patients who served in the military during WWII or worked in war-related industries between 1942 and 1945, CRMB records and related War Production Board files can help document where asbestos was shipped, which contractors used it, and which products contained it. This historical paper trail is often used to identify specific exposure sources decades later, especially for Navy veterans, shipyard workers, and civilian war workers whose employers may no longer exist.

Example Sentence

The expert's report traced the asbestos insulation aboard the patient's destroyer escort back to Combined Raw Materials Board allocations directing Canadian chrysotile to East Coast naval shipyards in 1943.

Related Terms

War Production Board, Maritime Commission, Chrysotile, Navy Shipyards, Strategic Materials Stockpile, Johns-Manville

Notes

• If you or a loved one worked in a shipyard, defense plant, or served in the military between 1942 and 1945, preserve any service records, DD-214, employment records, or union records. These can be matched against wartime allocation data.
• Ask your legal team whether they have access to historical industrial records and government archives (National Archives RG 179 War Production Board files) that document asbestos shipments to specific facilities.
• Veterans with WWII-era exposure may have claims against asbestos product manufacturers separate from any VA benefits. The two are generally not mutually exclusive.
• If a former employer no longer exists, wartime contracting records can sometimes identify the asbestos product brands used at that worksite.